Settlers on West Bank started building four times faster than before building freeze

Jewish settlers have started building more than 600 homes in the West Bank since a building freeze expired last month, Peace Now has said. The pace of building is four times faster than before the ban was put in place.

Yariv Oppenheimer, one of the leaders of Peace Now, said that more details about the building will be

released in a report on Monday. Hagit Ofran, another Peace Now activist, told the BBC that she estimates that work has started at about 600 housing units since the end of the construction freeze and that she is completing the survey in order to know the exact number. She added that construcion  is at different stages. In   some places 'it is only levelling the ground that has started and in others, it's the very foundation that is now being dug.'
A separate count by the Associated Press news agency estimated that ground had been broken on at least 544 new West Bank homes since 26 September, when Israel lifted its 10-month freeze on most new settlement building in the West Bank.